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"Sketching is one of my passions. I don't feel comfortable when I leave home without a sketchbook and some pens in my bag. I think that my way to put things in my memory is to draw them. And taking pictures isn't the same thing.

I live in a very dynamic surrounding — Israel is a warm country with warm weather and warm people. Of course, we have seashores, which calm us a little bit. I love to sit in a corner of some Tel-Aviv coffee shop and explore relationships: between people, their environment, between myself. All this unique local mix of cultures, languages and styles is always a great source for inspiration. You need to be fast, because, as I said, everything is very dynamic. But that's why I love it so much.

Sometimes, I look around, and I find some usual items like sugar bags or napkins. I use them in my drawings to show the atmosphere. Sometimes I draw directly on placemats."

"The dictionary says that a hobby is “an activity or interest pursued for pleasure or relaxation.” Although urban sketching certainly provides both pleasure and relaxation, I don’t think of it as my hobby. I think of it more as a way of life – something that has become such a normal part of my everydayness that it shapes how I view the world.

For most of my life I had both the fear of drawing as well as the desire to draw. In 2011, inspired by Gabi Campanario’s Seattle Sketcher column, I finally decided to overcome the fear. His drawings of Seattle – my birthplace and lifelong home – were of sights that I had seen many times, yet had never truly seen. I wanted to learn to see, and therefore experience, those locations (and any new ones that I travel to) more completely. Part 8 of the Urban Sketchers Manifesto, to “show the world, one drawing at a time,” has a flip side: Sketching enables me to see my own world, one drawing at a time.

In the last four years, it is not an exaggeration to say that Urban Sketchers has changed my life. I have met and sketched with many wonderful people around the globe, either at symposiums or during other travel, because the USk network brought us together. I sketch almost weekly with my local group, sharing sketches, art supplies and friendship. Even when I stay home and enjoy sketches online, I am still a part of that rich network, learning with every sketch about other people’s lives.

In May, my husband Greg and I went to France for the first time, and I sketched the Eiffel Tower. Sketching one of the world’s most famous icons felt like a dream come true – the ultimate in urban sketching. But although I can’t resist sketching world-famous icons whenever I’m fortunate enough to see them, for me, urban sketching is much more than that.

Urban sketching is a tree with its middle chopped away to accommodate Seattle’s ubiquitous power lines. It’s about a couple of women chatting over coffee, or about workers roofing the house next door. It’s about an excavator filling a hole where a cherry tree once stood. Or the Tibetan monastery I drive by frequently that I couldn’t resist because it’s bright orange. Urban sketching is a string band performing at a local farmers’ market – or perhaps in Villefranche-sur-Mer.

Celebrating the mundane as well as the famous is what urban sketching is all about. My sketches are not necessarily about “special” moments; they are moments made special because I sketched them."

Tina has been editor of Drawing Attention since 2013 and now serves on the Urban Sketchers editorial board. See more of her sketches on her blog, on Flickr and on Instagram.

"I was born in Mumbai (Bombay) and lived in different parts of India until I moved to San Jose, California, where I now live.

Travel inspires my art, but, traveling or not, I try to view the world around me as a traveller would; so whether I’m capturing a moment of calm on the banks of the Ganges in India, or sketching over coffee at my local coffee shop, I aim to look deeply, and with wonder, at both the everyday and the exotic, the old and the new.

I love color. My sketch kit consists of Extra Fine Sharpies (the fact that they bleed into the paper as soon as they touch it works really well for me—it forces me to work super-quick), a small set of Prismacolor pencils and a little watercolor travel set".• Blog• Flickr

"I was born in Guayaquil, Ecuador, where I studied architecture. I moved to Kassel (Germany) in 1999 to accomplish a master degree.
Although I have always drawn and paint, it was not until I started studying in the Uni-Kassel, that I started keeping a travel sketchbook. I had a teacher there who used to do a lot of sketches when he travelled on university excursions. When he retired, I helped to organize an exhibition of his sketches. He brought a huge box full of sketchbooks he had filled since he was an architecture student. I spent a whole day selecting the most interesting drawings. It was a wonderful experience that opened my eyes to a new world.
In the last 10 years I have the feeling of being in a long journey. I like to discover the cities where I live, to understand why a place is the way it is and what makes it different and unique from others. Drawing is for me a way to learn to love a place, to become part of it.
I like to draw architecture but I am more attracted to urban scenery, portraying how people live in the city. Since I’m a foreigner, everything that locals find normal and taken-for-granted, for me is exotic. I always carry a small watercolor travel set from Windsor and Newton and my sketchbook in my bag.
I always thought that drawing was a solitary experience until I found Urban Sketchers. It was amazing to find so many people doing the same thing. It is a great place to share!"
• Omar's blog.
• Omar's art on flickr.
• Omar's website.

Meet the correspondents: Dominican Republic > Chris Buchholz

"My name is Chris Buchholz, and I currently live in the
Dominican Republic with my beautiful wife Heydi. Several years ago I was working
as an Illustrator and graphic designer for a design company in Harrisburg
Pennsylvania, where I had also received my design education in a small community
college.

I’ve been drawing and painting ever since I was a child
and I’ve always loved it. But while working for that design company something
happened to me that would forever change my life and the way I thought about
art. I went to a design conference in Atlanta where I attended a presentation by
one Danny Gregory.

His presentation opened up my mind to, what was for me, a new
and interesting art form; the sketchbook. As he showed page after page of
beautiful drawings, drawings of normal everyday objects, of food, of pants, of public urinals, quick drawings of landmarks
and buildings on journey’s taken, I began to wonder what I had been doing for
the last 20 years of my life. I had seen some of the world, I’d been all over
the United States, seen the Canadian Rockies, I went backpacking through Italy,
bought my first house, met new friends and spent time with family; I had
experienced life in all its triumphs and trials, but where were the drawings?
I hadn’t drawn anything! I
suppose I was doing “art”, which more often than not meant that I was waiting
for a big idea or concept to come along, which rarely did. But I had missed out on the good stuff.
I too wanted to draw my food, and my pants, and possibly draw a public
urinal.

I decided to jump in to my first sketchbook. I decided
it would be based on my first house, which I had just recently put up for sale.
It was actually slated to be sold in about a month’s time. I decided to use this
last month to document everything about the house that I loved, each room, each
wall color, each magnet on the fridge, the contents of the drawers, furniture,
lighting fixtures, and yes, even the toilet. Although it meant putting off the
packing and moving to the last weekend before settlement, I can now say that that month spent drawing and
painting was one of the most satisfying and enjoyable times that I have ever
had.

Anyhow, It’s been about 5 or 6 years since I’ve filled
that first sketchbook, and ever since I’ve been drawing in sketchbooks. Drawing
has helped me to re-analyze my life at times. I decided at one point to cut back
the time I spent working as
a graphic designer to just three days a week so I could spend more time on the
more important things in life. Three years ago I decided to quit my job
completely, move to the Dominican Republic and volunteer my time as a
missionary.

Drawing is wonderful here in the DR, there’s never a
lack of interesting things to draw. I like working mostly in moleskines, mainly
the pocket sized ones. I use faber castell pitt pens, and recently I’ve been
using a lamy safari fine-point, which I love so far. I use prismacolor colored
pencils, and winsor and newton watercolors. I hope you enjoy my drawings!"